December 18, 2007
Morning Roundup: All Fired Up Edition
Good morning, Washington. We hope not too many of you were making your way into the city from Montgomery County this morning, as two separate water main breaks forced road closures in Takoma Park and kids to get the day off from school in Germantown. We'll admit it -- we're pretty envious of the students at Fox Chapel Elementary School, who get to spend the day doing whatever they please while we had to show up and actually do work. Isn't it supposed to be Christmas break already?
Council to Vote on Firing Power for Rhee: Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee has been asking for the power to fire nonunion employees in the front office for months now, and today the D.C. Council will decide whether they're going to give it to her. The Washington Post says that the Council is likely to approve Rhee's request, along with another bill that would approve funds to carry out the proposed closings of 23 schools. Previous stories indicated that the bill before the Council would only give Rhee the power to fire between 100 and 200 employees, but The Examiner reports that Council Chairman Vincent Gray introduced an 11th hour change that adds two more departments and thousands more staff members to those who would be affected.
City Employees Offered Retirement Incentives: Mayor Fenty announced yesterday that he's put together a package of incentives to entice the oldest city employees to retire in the hopes of being able to hire new, younger people to replace them more quickly. About 5,127 retirement-eligible employees will be offered the incentive, which will range from payments of $20,000 for those not yet at retirement age to $25,000 for retirees.
Briefly Noted: Old Convention Center development a done deal ... Arlington County Board approves enormous Rosslyn development ... Man found dead on the ramp from Benning Road to Kenilworth Avenue NE.
This Day in DCist: In 2006 we said goodbye to the Tower Records in Foggy Bottom, and in 2005 we asked local foodies what they wanted for Christmas.
Photo by F1.4
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470-foot-tall? I wonder what the FAA will say?
Ohh yeah they have:
"Three times in the past year, most recently last week, the FAA has ruled that planned high-rises in Crystal City, Rosslyn and the 2300 block of Columbia Pike would pose a "presumed hazard" to aircraft using the airport."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/19/AR2007051900993.html
"Isn't it supposed to be Christmas break already?"
It's only college where you get out early. We always had school until the 23rd (unless it was on a weekend like this year).
I for one will miss the minature golf like greens at the old convention center site.
“This is not an entitlement program,” said Brender Gregory, director of the human resources department. “It is subject to the availability of funds in the agencies.”
And as we all know, DC agencies never run out of funds. I think there's still money in the Spanish American War Veteran Widow and Orphan fund, unless they rolled that over into the Gay Left-handed Native American Liberation Day parade fund. I don't suppose they ever considered just letting these folks retire, not replace them, and save the millions in salary? It's not like we really need any more Deputy Assistant Vice Secretaries to the Assistant Deputy for Exotic Dancing Labor Relations Enforcement.
And who the heck's supposed to be the anchor tenant at the old convention center site? Do they even have one? I can't find squat on the developer website except the usual plattitudes and superlatives.
*miniature*
The project is to include 250,000 square feet of retail and more than 670 residential units - including 134 affordable ones
I'm hoping they mean low-income affordable housing because a lot of apts in dc certainly arent affordable :)
The original post reminds me of the old Tower Records and Video. Is that space in 2000 Penn still empty? That was a huge amount of space. And I wonder whatever happened to the Bearded Lady that worked there.